The Theory Of Ocean Floor Spreading Was Developed By

It continued to fund marine research leading to the first detailed map of the ocean floor published in the late 1950s by american geologists marie tharp and bruce heezen.

The theory of ocean floor spreading was developed by. To keep the earth s surface area constant the amount of seafloor spreading must equal the amount of subduction. Who proposed the theory of seafloor spreading based on maps of the ocean floor. Ocean basins get narrower as a result of seafloor spreading. With seafloor spreading the continents did not have to push through the ocean floor but were carried along as the ocean floor spread from the ridges.

Ocean floor is created by the process of subduction. The rate at which new oceanic lithosphere is added to each tectonic plate on either side of a mid ocean ridge is the spreading half rate and is equal to half of the spreading rate. Alfred wegener was born in berlin germany on november 1 1880. This idea played a pivotal role in the development of the theory of plate tectonics which revolutionized geologic thought during the last quarter of the 20th century.

But his theory was. Subduction causes continents to move apart. The magnetism of mid ocean ridges helped scientists first identify the process of seafloor spreading in the early 20th century. He spent a great deal of time in greenland as part of several exploration and research expeditions.

His book the origin of continents and oceans was originally published in germany in 1929 and was instrumental in the development of the theory of seafloor spreading. Spreading rates determine if the ridge is fast intermediate or slow. The features mapped on the ocean floor disproved continental drift. Seafloor spreading theory that oceanic crust forms along submarine mountain zones known collectively as the mid ocean ridge system and spreads out laterally away from them.

Spreading rate is the rate at which an ocean basin widens due to seafloor spreading. As upwelling of magma continues the plates continue to diverge a process known as seafloor spreading samples collected from the ocean floor show that the age of oceanic crust increases with distance from the spreading centre important evidence in favour of this process. These age data also allow the rate of seafloor spreading to be determined and they show that rates. In 1962 hess was well aware that solid evidence was still lacking to test his hypothesis and to convince a more receptive but still skeptical scientific community.

Why was the mapping of the ocean floor such an important step in the development of plate tectonic theory.